World Cup Finals - Italy Breaks Penalty Jinx (AET Italy 1 - France 1) *Italy Wins 5-3 on Penalties

It wasn't a classic, but what mattered was that Italy won the World Cup for the 4th time. And even more importantly, they did it with penalties. Italy is a team that hardly EVER wins penalty shootouts, and they must have been dreading it when the final whistle blew.

The game itself was full of talking points and by no means a dull draw. It was a stop/start half, with plenty of early injuries and fouls. An early penalty by Zidane made sure the game would be an interesting one. Or at least it wouldn't be a scoreless game. The penalty looked dubious as Malouda fell in the area. The replays on TV showed that he was not touched, but nevertheless, the fact that it was given was what mattered.

Italy played well in the first half and defender Materazzi climbed above Vieira to head a bullet from a corner. In fact Italy looked brilliant from corners. Whenever they had one, Pirlo would send it right to the head of either Materazzi or Toni.

In the second half, France took the game by the scruff of the neck and squeezed the Italians back into their own half. The French were so dominant that Italy probably barely had been able to string 3-4 passes the entire half.

In the first period of extra time, Zidane nearly scored from a header only to have Buffon make a miraculous. Then in the second period, he did something that you would never expect from Zidane. He headbutted Materazzi with full intent. It was inexcusable, and the referee rightfully sent him off. It's a shame that someone with such an illustrious international career would end it in disgrace.

Unfortunately, by this time, the Italians looked extremely exhausted and were not physically capable of making their one man advantage count. The game went into penalties and Italy made theirs count and won the World Cup.

And the statistic that really mattered, was that I made a recovery on that bet I made for Italy to win the tounament. Covered all my losses the entire World Cup, plus some. Yeah, love Italy.